Blanket Forts, Fortune Cookies, and Honey Walnut Shrimp
by allthehouseslookthesame
Summary: (LBD) Inspired by a few tumblr posts, in which ordering Chinese takeout is Dizzie's tradition, but this time around, Darcy is *proposing* a new plan. Fluffy future!fic.


_I've never written any story this length, this idea just kind of came to me while on tumblr in traffic. I hope you enjoy it, and I apologize for bad pacing/description and ooc-ness :| also special thanks to rorywilliams-pond for being my beta even though she doesn't really care about the lbd 3 you da best :)_

_personal dizzie playlist:_

_king and lionheart - of monsters and men_

_long distance lullaby - stornoway_

_miracles - jeremy messersmith_

_your heart is an empty room - death cab for cutie_

_of monsters and heroes and men - james_

_wake me up - ed sheeran_

"I hope you're ready for one of the most revolutionary and groundbreaking movie trilogies of all time, Will, because we're in for an amazing night."

Lizzie parked her bike next to Darcy's. They walked side by side, the fingers of her left hand quickly finding refuge in the crook of his large hand.

"Considering the fact that you've said the same about almost every movie we've watched, I am inclined to have slightly lower expectations."

"I still have no idea whether to break up with you over the fact that you didn't enjoy Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I mean, it's a classic!"

"To be quite honest, Lizzie, I find your mannerisms during our movie nights more endearing and comical than the movies themselves. Where else do you find someone who will literally throw popcorn at the TV monitor even after having seen the same film and heard the same jokes tens of times?"

They walked into the lobby of the apartment. While Lizzie greeted the security guard, Darcy unlocked their mailbox. Inside sit a small origami eagle. With that, he shut the door, smiling to himself.

"Come on, Will! The entire Star Wars saga is at least 13 hours, not including bonus footage, so unless you want to go out in the middle of the night to get me more popcorn, we have to start now!"

Lizzie grabbed his hand and dragged him to the elevator, but not before the security guard snuck him a wink.

"I'm sure tonight will be a great night."

"Are you kidding me? This is going to be the best movie marathon/fifth year anniversary in the history of ever."

"Technically, we're a day early - I checked my calendar."

"How many times do I have to tell you? Even if we violated kissing etiquette when we first got together, I'm still counting it as the start of our relationship."

"Mhm. Well, you know that I would've planned something different for today if you'd only let me. With the appropriate decor and amenities, of course. French chocolate pastries, ice swan sculptures, live serenading..."

"Which is why we trade off planning the method of celebration for our anniversary. I'm sorry, William, but as smooth and silky your voice is, you can't sing - not well, anyway."

"I would've probably hired someone like Justin Vernon, or James Vincent McMorrow, or…"

Having reached their floor, they stepped out.

"For once, I'm not afraid to succumb to conformism - Will, they honestly sound like dying cats and - oh."

Having unlocked the door, turned on the lights, and stepped inside, Lizzie was greeted by the sight of a dining table laden with a complete Chinese feast.

"You said that you'd plan the night - you didn't say I couldn't add embellishments. It's my anniversary too. Besides, Chinese is our tradition - I even got you your favorite, honey walnut shrimp."

He smiled at her beautifully shocked features, and grabbing two boxes of noodles, some plates, and two pairs of chopsticks, led her to the living room, where bundles of blankets had been set up.

"Wow."

"I hope you find this setting to your liking. I had to consult Charlotte regarding some, ah, finer details about your childhood playmates, and Gigi for the variety of blankets, but this is -"

"This is perfect."

She plopped down on a tiny mound of soft blankets and made herself comfortable, gesturing for him to do the same.

"I"ll grab more refreshments, can you set the DVR up?"

"Sure, Will, let's get this show on the road. But, wait -"

Lizzie got up, skipped over to Darcy and gave him a peck on the lips, and a big hug.

"Thank you for everything, honey. Don't worry, I'm using it ironically."

She winked, and went to go figure out the TV setup. Bemused, Darcy went to the dining room, the scent of Lizzie still around him.

"Please let this be a good day," he muttered, and set some drinks on a tray. Then, he went into the kitchen, and took out a paper bag of fortune cookies from the cupboard.

Inside was a small note separated into styles of cursive, of flowery strokes, of thin strokes, of slanted calligraphy, and then of a scrawl so messy it was pretty much unreadable.

That is, unless you've known that penmanship since the beginning of first grade.

Fitz: Go get her, tiger!  
Jane: This is such a sweet idea, I know all will go well, good luck!  
Bing: I know you'll treat her well, man, go for it!  
Lydia: WAY TO GO, DARCE! PUT A RING ON THAT FINGER!  
Gigi: Dearest big brother, PUT A RING ON IT. DETAILS LATER!

He checked to see if the fortune cookies were at the bottom of the bag, specifically two that were bright blue and green, and having made sure that they were there, took everything back to where Lizzie was patiently waiting, already bundled up and already stuffing her face with spring rolls.

Darcy chuckled, and joined her in her feast. A few wordless minutes passed between them as they tore through the plates, but Lizzie quickly found herself laughing - or would crying be a better term - at him trying to use chopsticks.

"After 5 years, you still haven't mastered the chopsticks?"

"It's definitely not my forte, but at least it makes you laugh."

She grinned, and he felt the butterflies in his stomach flutter once again, as often happened when she looked directly in his eyes.

"Anyway, disregard my earlier comment about the popcorn - I might actually just need some traditional Chinese medicine to cure the… grease."

"I thought you might enjoy this processed, fat-laden feast."

"Poor, sweet, Will, thank you for sacrificing your delicate digestive system for my sake - I know the mere notion of ingesting this manmade filth haunts you every night."

She rested her back against the soft hills that surrounded her.

"Not while you're with me."

He sipped his organic apple juice,, then set it to his right.

"William Darcy, I am appalled. That is the cheesiest thing you've ever said -"

He silenced her by leaning over and planting a kiss on her mouth (which lasted a good seven seconds, wherein Lizzie's tidy bun became unravelled), before pulling away abruptly. He gave her a wink, and chuckled as she sputtered and tried to think of a witty comeback.

"For the record, that isn't fair. Just because I love you doesn't mean you can just use your kisses and your deep voice to fluster me - as a man of integrity, you should know better, Mr. William Darcy."

"I love you, too, Lizzie. You should thank me for at least trying to freshen my breath first, though. Your lips taste of walnuts."

Darcy smirked, and went back to eating his noodles.

"I hope you know you went way overboard with this - although more shrimp is always better than less. I just hope you'll be motivated to be my periodic food messenger to and from the dining room because I'm definitely not moving away from my blankets.

"But of course, milady."

He gave a little mock bow, and she giggled and inched over to him, settling into the crook of his shoulder.

"I also hope this is the last surprise of the night, because I think you're really detracting from the most important part of this celebration. Forget my last statement about the food messenger thing - you make a very comfortable cushion.

"First of all, thank you for the compliment. As for the 'most important part', you do mean the amazing 1825 days, 43,800 hours and 2,628,000 minutes that we've spent together, right?

"You missed a day! Leap year, remember?"

"I'm not counting the day - or night, rather - we kissed."

"We round up the days, Will. Besides, I wasn't talking about that, I was talking about the genius that is George Lucas, at least before he turned into what we now know as George Lucas.

"Sorry?"

"This is worrying, Mr. William Darcy. We must remedy you of this ailment at once. But first, food."

"Actually, I have another surprise for you. I brought some Ghirardelli too, it's sitting in the fridge if and when you want it."

Lizzie smiled, tiptoed up, and gave Darcy a peck on the cheek.

"You really do know the way to a woman's heart, don't you, Mr. Darcy?"

He winced a bit at the sound of the moniker, a remnant of harsher, past memories, but decided to let it go, and they started the first movie.

"William, what sorcery is this? Dare you sully your sophisticated palate with even more food from the peasantry, with fortune cookies?"

They had just finished A New Hope, and were taking a break from the bright lights of the screen - having commentated all through the two movies, Lizzie was happy at the prospect of being able to drink tea and listen to Will speak for a while. Having remained mostly silent, save for a few hearty laughs, she missed his low rumbling voice.

What she hadn't expected, though, was his getting up and grabbing a brown paper bag behind one of the blanket hills, and fishing a few multicolored fortune cookies out for them to eat.

"Lizzie."

Admittedly, it was true that he didn't want to actually eat the plastic-textured cookies, but she seemed to be fine with it, so he tried one.

It was exactly as he'd expected.

Actually, no, it was much, much worse.

She'd laughed ridiculously hard at his face after he bit into his cookie for not breaking it in half first, but he knew how to properly eat a cookie. He just wanted to hear her laugh again.

Lizzie had laughed at his colour choice, too - "Blue? Green? What is this, a muppet party? Think of all the chemicals we're ingesting, Will!" - but he managed to put her off eating her blue cookie until the end.

"I'm just teasing you, William."

"I know, but even after 5 years, I'm still worried every time you pull that tone on me. Now come on, let's eat our special cookies now."

"The right way this time?"

"Is there really ever a right way?"

She smirked, leaned in to give him a peck on the lips, and opened the cookie.

For the first time in a long time, she was speechless.

Speechless, because inside the cookie was a simple, silver band. A simple silver band mounting a sapphire encrusted head, with a beautiful, glistening diamond in the middle.

He knew that she'd never accept a fancy, ornate, behemoth of a ring, and would probably return it and ask for a dupe to be made and donate the money to charity, so he never gave buying it a second thought. Having sought Gigi's consent, he had carefully taken this old antique out of his family's safety deposit box - his mother's originally, and her mother's before that, it was old, yet new, beautiful, yet understated - as Lizzie had put it once, it had character - like her.

"H-how?"

"I won't get into specifics, but I took a class - despite their cardboard texture and taste, the art of crafting fortune cookies is quite difficult. But, honey, I think you're kind of missing the poi-"

Instead of waiting for him to finish his sentence, Lizzie leaned in, pressed her left against his cheek and kissed him tenderly, feeling some residual crumbs on his lips. She breathed in his fresh scent, and pulled away, tears streaming.

"Go on, I'm sure you prepared an exquisite monologue for this," she teased lovingly, and after a few seconds, he looked straight at her with gentle, piercing blue eyes.

"E-Elizabeth - Lizzie - Bennet, you are infuriating, beautiful, stubborn, intelligent, articulate and loving, as well as a hundred other synonyms and words that I could but won't say because you'd probably skin me because of the cheesiness."

"You made - you make me a better person, and with all my heart and soul, with everything I am, I love you, and I love that we accept each other for our flaws and help each other grow and develop."

"To me, nothing would be greater than the honor of letting me be your husband, and letting me live the rest of my life by your side as your best friend and your other half."

He took her hands with his own and kissed them gently as Lizzie let out a soft chuckle, still in a state of shock.

"So Lizzie, I have a very, very important question to ask you: do you want to get your groove thing on?"

She couldn't hold it in anymore - tears flowed freely down her face, she let out a laugh, and proceeded to pull William closer by the tie, until they were cheek to cheek.

"Only if I get to marry you first."

Triumphantly, he slipped the ring on her finger, kissed her, and without missing a beat, he (literally) swept her off her feet and twirled her around the room, around the apartment.

The happy couple never did touch the honey walnut shrimp again.


End file.
